What do animals do in wildfires?

Ministr of Higher and Secondary Special Education
Uzbekistan State of World Languages University

Reading Log 1

( second semester)
Done by: Mirzoqulova Marjona
Group: 2203
Checked by: Shukurova Nodira

What do animals do in wildfires?

1. 
   Summary
   

Wildfires are spreading across California cause of heat wave and strong winds. Also the West Coast of the United States, including in Origon and Washington state, have faced this kind of danger.
Some kind of species need fire. For example: heat can stimulate some fungi, like morel mushrooms to let out spores. There is some plants that will seed only after a fire. And also animals such as mule deer and black-backed woodpeckers, require burned areas to both eat and nest.
Most animals sense it and can run away or stand in streams to avoid the hazard. Smaller animals take cover in logs, under rocks, or by burying themselves in the dirt.
The researchers found that fire weather seasons have lengthened across one quarter of Earth’s vegetated surface. In certain areas, extending the fire season by a bit each year added up to a large change over the full study period. For instance, parts of the western U.S face wildfire seasons that are more than seven months.
Wildfires can be useful for animals to flee. Bears, raccoons, and raptors, for instance, have been seen hunting creatures trying to escape the flames.
“In those short-term situations,” such as when creatures flee from flames, says Sullivan, “There’s always winners and losers.”
Wildfires are apart of a healthy ecosystem, and while they may inflict some animal casualties in the short term, they are a part of the natural cycle. Without them, forests become overgrown and burn more intensely when they do catch flame. Animals have developed their own methods of avoiding fire danger.

2. 
   My thoughts
   

Fire can be dangerous to animals and plants that can’t outrun it. Some animals do die in the flames of wildfires, mostly the elderly and very young animals who can’t escape. However, the majority of wildlife mortalities come after the fire is out, due to the loss of important habitat and food sources burned in the fire. The burns create a new type of habitat.
Wildfire causes wildlife to move, avoiding flames and searching for new habitat. This migration can cause animals to wander into densely human populated areas and come into contact with humans they would normally avoid. However, there are many positives to wildlife and the ecosystem at large as well.
One positive impact from wildfires is that some species, like the jack pine, rely on fire to release their seeds.
Healthy small fires lead to ‘islands’ of different microhabitats, which increases biodiversity which in turn increases the resiliency of the ecosystem.

3. 
   Connections of real life
   

Like all natural disasters these days, wildfires are becoming more prevalent across the globe. In recent years, we’ve seen tragedies unfold one after the other - like the 2020 bushfires in New South Wales, Australia that killed an estimated 480 million animals. And the North Complex wildfire in California that left more than 318,000 acres burned and displacing local wildlife like deer, bears and coyotes.
One of the most dangerous aspects of wildfires is their ability to spread quickly. Wildfires can burn through a forest at a speed of 10 kilometres an hour.
The risk of wildfires increases in extremely dry conditions, such as drought, and during high winds. Wildfires can disrupt transportation, communications, power and gas services, and water supply. They also lead to a deterioration of the air quality, and loss of property, crops, resources, animals and people.